Anyone on here live in WA?

ladygirl · ‎10-27-2010

We live in No CA and are relocating to the Vancouver WA area in January. Just wanted to see if anyone lives in Washington and had any advice? What they love about it, what they don't? I'm originally from NY and moved to So Cal for 17 years, then moved up north, got married, and now 8 years later, my husband wants to move. We run a business and it will be much cheaper in Washington!

maryb83 · ‎09-16-2014

I live in Wa outside Seattle. Vancouver Wa is the armpit of the state. You might want to rethink living there......you couldn't pay me to live there

ladygirl · ‎10-27-2010

I have checked City Data, I read it often! What do you mean by Armpit? Maybe like Sacramento is the armpit of Norcal? We live in El Dorado hills and would not live in Sac either. Please expand! My husband visited seattle and did not like it, so we'll see. It's growing by leaps and bounds, we still haven't even secured a place! It's almost impossible to find a perm job here too withought commuting an hour to Sacramento in traffic.

HappyDaze · ‎06-13-2012

@maryb83 wrote:
I live in Wa outside Seattle. Vancouver Wa is the armpit of the state. You might want to rethink living there......you couldn't pay me to live there

I am not sure it is THE armpit- Everett, Washington isn't exactly known for its' beauty and lack of crime, lol. I believe the statistics show that it has a higher crime rate than Vancouver. Tacoma isn't all that great either. With that said, I am not a fan of Vancouver, although along the Columbia river is nice. There are new home communities in the northwestern part of Vancouver, more of the ridgefield area. I do not live in WA but had relatives that live near Seattle so am pretty familar with some of the locations. I think the northern part of Washington is definitely the most beautiful.

KKWA · ‎08-21-2011

I live in the Seattle area. I was born and raised in Southern California. Moved here in '96, to retire. In the Vancouver area homes are more reasonable than CA. You have the beautiful mountains, wildlife, beautiful seasons with a relatively mild winter. You have to learn to drive in the rain. They say if the people in Seattle knew enough to come in out of the rain, they'd never get anywhere. There is no State income tax in WA. People are more polite then CA (except Portland drivers are mean, Vancnouver is a suburb to Portland). I think it is a positive move. Good luck.

ladygirl · ‎10-27-2010

Well we are interested in both Ridgefield and Camas by the lake. But we will have to rent a small place in vancouver and get to the know the area to see if we even want to buy first....I'm sorry I meant general vancouver area. We love portland but are not city people so that's out. There is no tax advantage to move to the outskirts of portland but we will be half hour away. We sold our home in Folsom, CA.

Thank you for your comments, keep em coming!

Marienkaefer2 · ‎03-09-2010

Right now I live in nw WA near the Canadian border/San Juan Islands. But in the 1990s I lived in Portland, Oregon, which is right across the Columbia from Vancouver. A lot of my friends and coworkers lived in Vancouver at that time as well.

I haven't been there for a few years, but I wouldn't say it's an "armpit." In fact, I did some research on that area a few years ago for a friend who wanted to move to Portland.

There are a lot of nice housing developments in Vancouver. I think you can find a nice house for a decent price. I'm not 100% aware of what the crime statistics, etc are for Vancouver, but I wouldn't consider it to be a bad place to live.

In Vancouver, basically your "city" is going to be Portland, not Seattle. Portland is a great city..lots of activities, culture, shopping, and a great town for FOODIES! Lots of cool restaurants and cafes, food trucks. Portland, imo, is much more manageable and friendly than Seattle, as big cities go. But, maybe that's because I lived there for a long time and I'm more familiar with it.

One of the advantages in living in Vancouver is that you don't have state income tax in WA, and you can drive across the river and shop in Oregon where there is no sales tax.

Plus, you are within a nice driving distance of the Oregon Coast, Mt. Hood, and all of the outdoor and scenic wonders of Oregon.

I'd say it would be a positive move.

If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.--Marcus Tullius Cicero

McGraw Fan · ‎12-24-2010

Funny, I have lived in WA all my life (Puyallup, near Tacoma) and I would not call Vancouver an armpit at all! It has grown alot over the past 10 -15 yrs and they have many restaurants, shopping and Ridgefield has an Ampitheatre that gets some really good concerts in the Summer. What others have commented is true, you are very clsoe to Portland and it is so convenient to be able to shop and eat there with no tax. I'm sure there are some less desireable areas in Vancouver just like any other city but I would say you are making a great choice. Just be prepared for the rain. That area seems to get a little more rain/snow than we do up by Tacoma, but they also get warmer temps in the Summer months. I want to say "Welcome To WA" and I hope everything works out well for your family.

ladygirl · ‎10-27-2010

Thank you, that's the plan. We will be close to Portland and we have visited many of the restuarants! Yes some areas of vancouver are not as nice as what we are used to but that's like CA, you can drive to the next town over and it's not that nice. I'm worried about the rain, but lived in NY where it pretty much rained or snowed 10 months out of the year. That's why I left, but I was like 25! Now I'm a homebody! lol My hubby is super excited, I'm overwhelmed and nervous, becuase we have a 3000 square foot house to pack up and move a huge business and warehouse. I'm leaving most of those details up to him! We were told that they had like 95 degree weeks there in Camas/Vancouver this past summer. We went to visit in September and met with some realtors, etc.

Thanks again!

sandraskates · ‎06-26-2014

@Ladyjenn wrote:
We live in No CA and are relocating to the Vancouver WA area in January. Just wanted to see if anyone lives in Washington and had any advice? What they love about it, what they don't? I'm originally from NY and moved to So Cal for 17 years, then moved up north, got married, and now 8 years later, my husband wants to move. We run a business and it will be much cheaper in Washington!

@ladygirlGood luck to you and your hubby!

Maybe one of these days the government in CA will wise up to keep business people like you from defecting.